"
But now Gabriel started to his feet.
"Think, think of the fevers, yellow and bilious!
Beware of the horrible plague!"
"Gabriel! Gabriel!" cried Captain Mayhew; "thou must either-"
But that instant a headlong wave shot the boat far ahead,
and its seethings drowned all speech.
"Hast thou seen the White Whale?" demanded Ahab, when the
boat drifted back.
"Think, think of thy whale-boat, stoven and sunk!
Beware of the horrible tail!"
"I tell thee again, Gabriel, that-" But again the boat tore ahead
as if dragged by fiends. Nothing was said for some moments,
while a succession of riotous waves rolled by which by one of those
occasional caprices of the seas were tumbling, not heaving it.
Meantime, the hoisted sperm whale's head jogged about very violently,
and Gabriel was seen eyeing it with rather more apprehensiveness
than his archangel nature seemed to warrant.
When this interlude was over, Captain Mayhew began a dark
story concerning Moby Dick; not, however, without frequent
interruptions from Gabriel, whenever his name was mentioned,
and the crazy sea that seemed leagued with him.
It seemed that the Jeroboam had not long left home, when upon
speaking a whale-ship, her people were reliably apprised
of the existence of Moby Dick, and the havoc he had made.
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